Asked if over 170 political appointees are not too much? The Chief Minister said, “Keeping in mind the kind of parties, we have 6-7 political parties that are part of coalition, this number is not much.”
Talking to Mediapersons, the Chief Minister said the political appointments are there in every government and there is nothing wrong in it. He also said the Government is ensuring that these political appointees should be productive.
“What is important is for everybody to question the effectiveness of these appointments and the effectiveness of these boards. Appointment, yes we have to do and we are doing, we want to involve all the grassroots people, we want to involve all political leaders in the system. But as I said, I have been very particular that they should function also,” he added.
Further, Sangma said that such political appointments do not have very large financial implications.
He said that after rationalizing the benefits given to the different political appointees, the government now hardly pays a bit more than Rs 12 lakh per month additional to accommodate another 50 people.